I have a little bit of experience with stereo installs which i am sure helped with the install, but seeing what people pay to get these installed at a shop is just crazy it is really simple even if you dont have much experience with car electronics, biggest pain was finding a spot to shove all the excess wire slack under the dash....

at first i was going to use the ashtray/cubby to mount control mod speaker and display, but really didnt want to lose the cubby so i found a spot right in front of armrest where the speaker would fit, drilled some holes int the center trim to allow sound to pass and put the speaker there, sound is loud and projects nicely even with stereo all the way up, great location for the e90

you do have to trim to peices of plastic

indicator led in steering column
control module mount

display mounted out of the way but in a great spot for visability when i see the led and hear alert

yeah the fake metallic coating in front of the receiver is going to interfere with its operation. how much, who knows... escort seems to make a big deal out of it, but those guys are prob shooting for 110% effectiveness.

yeah the fake metallic coating in front of the receiver is going to interfere with its operation. how much, who knows... escort seems to make a big deal out of it, but those guys are prob shooting for 110% effectiveness.

any irregular opening, or irregularly shaped plastic will interfere with the antennas ability to receive optimally. if its a piece of plastic that has a constant smooth form, like a bumper cover you can get away with it, as long as your paint doesnt have metallic flakes in it...

Even more adversely effecting performance, ANY metallic coating, whether its painted on, real or fake, will interfere with microwaves, reflect them back and degrade the performance of the antenna.

i was going to do this install on my 328 and the only suitable location was it poking out through the lower plastic mesh, even with the mesh. On my 993, i would put it behind the plastic mesh knowing i would lose some performance but not modify the mesh, the mesh is irregular shape but its not metallic so its not that bad. The Qi45 and the 9500ci I installed in both my trucks have 'open air' views of the road ahead.

and another i installed on my ranger. i had to raise the antenna bracket to allow it to see through the chrome grill slots. this radar worked great, even though i was concerned about its proximity to the chrome.

Agreed on the location of the radar antenna. Although with windshield mounted radar detectors higher is better, this is not the case with remote mounted radar detectors. A better mourning position is in front of the lower grill.

The position of the shifters are too low. BMWs do not generally offer great mounting positions. A guy on this site that I participated in helping to test in early 2011 in Westchester, NY, had a Blinder M47 with two heads in the lower grill mounted similar to where your shifters are positioned, but he had two additional heads mounted vertically in the kidney grill. I do recommend three or four head installations for the front of BMWs. The only laser jammers that I recommend are Laser Interceptor and Blinder HP-905. The Laser Interceptor performs slightly better than the Blinder.

A guy on this site that I participated in helping to test in early 2011 in Westchester, NY, had a Blinder M47 with two heads in the lower grill mounted similar to where your shifters are positioned, but he had two additional heads mounted vertically in the kidney grill.

Switching to an LI tri for the front since now the blinders (M4* series) have become obsolete.

You seem to be heavily into the "modded" look and don't mind having all of these components visible. And mismatched vinyl in your interior (where you re-wrapped the console trim piece). Our customers want a more integrated installation. And that simply can't be done in 5 hours.

As B-737 said, the antenna performance will be heavily degraded by being located behind the metallic grill like that. But your biggest problem is that you mounted it upside down.

I would recommend relocating it to the opening where you have your shifters located and mounting it right side up.

Nice catch VP, I completely overlooked that "minor detail", I forgot that unlike the lesser Qi45 antenna, the 9500ci does have a right side up!

Oh, and for those referencing this for an install, Id also add the "holes drilled for the sound to pass" aren't necessary, the speaker is plenty loud to be totally buried and still be heard clearly. (ie. above the drivers foot area)

Nice catch VP, I completely overlooked that "minor detail", I forgot that unlike the lesser Qi45 antenna, the 9500ci does have a right side up!

Something about this didn't seem right so I did some research on escort.com and escortradar, the company rep, states that this will not adversely affect radar detection. However, some other members *theorized* that it might affect "over the hill" detection.

Did you try to fit it inside the bumper cover and it didn't fit? That would be too bad, since the higher the better as far as there is room for it inside the bumper.

i didnt have the car long enough to take on the job. im not a fan of behind the bumper cover. your going to get some signal degradation, metallic paint ect... id opt for a position 6 inches lower and open air any day of the week....

Quote:

Originally Posted by upstatedoc

Something about this didn't seem right so I did some research on escort.com and escortradar, the company rep, states that this will not adversely affect radar detection. However, some other members *theorized* that it might affect "over the hill" detection.

Doc,
its my understanding that the 9500ci antennas have a right side up, having to do with a cone of receiving and how the antenna is made and receives. whereas the lower 8500ci does not have a right side up.

what did you learn about this?

im not sure what it is about radar and countermeasures, but its a topic that i love learning and talking about, its something seemingly simple but is pretty technical in nature.